The 2021 champions Australia are out of the T20 World Cup. Zimbabwe reached the Super Eights without playing a ball as their match against Ireland was washed out in Kandy. Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka have qualified from Group B and will face West Indies, India, and South Africa next. Ireland are also out. Persistent rain at Pallekelle stadium stopped the game all day. Umpires called off the match at 5:30 pm local time with no chance to play the minimum five overs before the 6:10 pm cut-off. Australia had lost to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe before and needed Ireland to win to stay in the tournament. Zimbabwe now have five points and one game left. Ireland have three points, and Australia, with only two points and one game left against Oman on Friday, cannot catch Zimbabwe. Australia's tournament was hit by injuries to key players Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. Captain Mitchell Marsh missed two games after an injury in training. Steve Smith was left out of the key match against Sri Lanka despite strong form and only joined the squad last week. Zimbabwe captain Skiander Raza praised his team but warned tougher challenges lie ahead. “We have come this far. We will celebrate but we have a game against Sri Lanka to come,” said Raza. “This is only a tick in the box and this is not the only thing that we set out for. Everyone loves an underdog story.” Ireland captain Lorcan Tucker expressed his disappointment over the rain-out and earlier mistakes. “Obviously very disappointed to go out in this fashion, but completely uncontrollable,” he said. “Our batting failed. There were big moments in the tournament, particularly against Sri Lanka, when we dropped so many catches. Hopefully, we will handle these tough situations differently moving forward.”